


The Assessment

by Jena Bartley (jenab)



Category: Revenge (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-11
Updated: 2012-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-20 20:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenab/pseuds/Jena%20Bartley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He hadn't been expecting to see one of the richest men in the world dressed as a cable repairman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Assessment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Thank you to Lionessblack for the beta.
> 
> Spoilers up to Destiny, 2.01.

Nolan Ross

Gordon hadn’t been expecting to see one of the richest men in the world dressed as a cable repairman, planting cameras in Gordon’s home. 

He’d been on edge since his meeting with Conrad Grayson. Then the lights had flickered leading up to this cable repairman appearing so quickly. It had tipped Gordon off that this wasn’t just some average guy working for the cable company. Over the years, he’d learned to listen to that whisper in the back of his mind. It had save his life more than once. 

He’d watched the man while asking question after question. The man was sure when it came to checking over the equipment, but became more nervous with each question from Gordon. Though he had all the right answers, the way his eyes darted from Gordon to the room told Gordon so much. 

Once the man had left, Gordon set out to examine his house, spotting the cameras with a little work. The man was good but he wasn’t the professional Gordon was. Gordon hacked into the camera and set it on a loop before taking a closer look at it. 

The tech was pure Nolcorp, Nolan’s first mistake. Never use your own technology unless you know you’ll never be caught. One of the cameras was so top of the line it wasn’t even on the market yet. For all his genius, Ross wasn’t very good at being sneaky.

But identifying Nolan gave Gordon the clue to start putting the pieces together. Over the years, Gordon had kept his eye on the Graysons as part of his job for the Initiative. Part of that had been watching the newcomers to the Hamptons. 

He’d watched Nolan enter into the Hamptons with his new money setting him above all of the others in term of wealth. He’d built the biggest mansion in the area before setting out to enter society. 

That was where Nolan stumbled.

For Victoria Grayson was the arbitrator of such an entrance. She was the one who set the standards of who was allowed and who wasn’t. She’d taken one look at Nolan and promptly shunned him from her society. 

Gordon wasn’t surprised. Nolan stood out from the crowd with his fashion sense, his inability to conform to what the residents expected of him. He spoke his mind and didn’t care if he offended anyone. He would never submit to or let Victoria control him. That was the main reason he hovered on the outskirts. 

He was also a little too needy, his desire to belong clear to anyone who laid eyes on him. Gordon wondered why Nolan was in the Hamptons to begin with when the others so clearly didn’t want him there. He would fit in better in California where Nolan’s personality and brand of eccentricness would be welcomed. 

Then Emily Thorne arrived and Nolan started to orbit around her from their first meeting. For some reason she didn’t shun him even as she worked to become part of Victoria’s circle and society. Gordon had been intrigued by Miss Thorne as he watched her slip into the lives of the Graysons. 

Gordon had also watched the way Ross has clung to Emily, like a moon circling a planet, drawn in by its gravity. At first Gordon thought it had to do with Ross’s neediness and sticking to the one person who had shown him a bit of friendship after Victoria had ordered the elite of the Hamptons to shun Ross. 

As he started watching Ross, Gordon came to realize it was more than a simple show of friendship that had Nolan devoted to Emily. He wasn’t quite sure what it was but it had him digging deeper into both Nolan’s and Emily’s background. 

Why was such a classy and powerful woman like Emily allowing Nolan to be such an integral part of her social circle? 

In addition to delving into their backgrounds, Gordon started to map out the recent misfortunes of several of the Hamptons’ more prominent residents. He’d already started investigating their troubles on a hunch. Something that was paying off now. 

While only a couple of them had direct ties to David Clarke, another couple had ties to his daughter, Amanda, such as the psychiatrist who turned out to be the one to examine little Amanda Clarke and recommend her to be committed. 

It fit that this newcomer was actually the daughter of the late David Clarke, come back to extract revenge on all those who had harmed her father and herself. It was in the way the bodies, both dead and alive, were starting to pile up since Emily’s arrival. 

It was done with such skill, Gordon could only admire Amanda’s work even as she was unraveling the decades long conspiracy that framed her father and kept the Graysons’ under the Initiative’ control. He could also see why Nolan was so taken with Miss Thorne for Gordon had also uncovered just where Nolan got his seed money for his company. Gordon believed Nolan thought he needed to look out for and help Emily with her revenge, even if he didn’t really want to. 

There was something about the Clarke women that drew a man in. Gordon wasn’t immune to it with how he’d fallen so hard for Kara. Both Kara and Emily were compelling, complex women. 

Kara would have done the same thing as her daughter had she know the full truth about what happened to David, but she wouldn’t have been so elegant about it as Amanda. She would have barreled in right to the Graysons and confronted them before killing them. She would have destroyed herself along with the Graysons. 

Gordon couldn’t permit that. It was why he’d hidden the truth from her over the years. Not just because of his part in killing her husband but because he’d come to love her and couldn’t bear to see her destroyed when she took her vengeance. 

For now, he needed to get back that evidence Emily had found. The best way to do that was to kidnap Nolan as Gordon had seen that Emily didn’t just tolerate Nolan. She actually held some real affection and maybe even friendship for Nolan. 

It should have worked, but he’d underestimated Emily. She ended up turning around, freeing not only herself and Nolan, but putting a gun to his head. 

He started back at her, daring her to shoot. Gordon knew she would, it was what her mother would do no matter how much she’d come to love him back. But once again, Emily surprised him. She put the gun away and told him she was honoring her father by letting him live when Gordon had taunted her about David. 

Emily was both Kara and David’s daughter, a mixture of their strengths, determination and tenacity but without her mother’s mental illness. For Kara, Gordon would sit back and let Emily continue with her plans. Perhaps he would even aid in her quest to take down Grayson as Grayson was pulling at the end of his leash too much lately. 

He kept watch on both her and Nolan, noticing how Nolan seemed to help provide an emotional anchor for Emily. Perhaps it wasn’t as one-sided a relationship as he first thought. Maybe Nolan was more than just a puppy in search of a welcoming hand. 

Maybe he was the anchor Emily needed to keep herself from slipping too far into her quest for revenge.


End file.
